24.04.15 : #fashRev #whomademyclothes

Posted on April 23, 2015

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“The t-shirt was 25$. That is crazy. I can find one for $5 in H&M”, says my friend while eating his 13$ grilled fish plate with a 3$ cold beer on a warm Sunday afternoon. This is not the first time i heard this line. Everytime i hear it, i slip into a rant in my head. Its no business of mine lecturing people. I didn’t know any better last year. But its not the same for me anymore. I never want to go back to my older habits.

“We always pay dearly for chasing after what is cheap.” ― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

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It is impossible to manufacture one for that price in America. So how is it getting made ? Sweatshops. Two years ago, Rana Plaza in Dhaka, Bangladesh collapsed killing 1133 people and injuring 2500. Stories like this make the news and are forgotten. For an incident like this near Delhi, the govt imposed a fine for 2$ per injured person. Really? 2$ is what a persons life is worth ? Thats less than the price of the beer for most Americans. I read about horror stories about 18 hour work days with no weekends. Women being forced to take contraceptive pills in front of the supervisors so that they don’t get pregnant, just so that they don’t disrupt the efficiency that goes into the making of the 5$ t-shirts. I hear stories of how Haiti became Disney’s sweatshop. They had a plan. Import cheap rice into the country. In no time, the farmers producing the more nutritious local variety could not sell their grain. And eventually, they had to move away from the villages into cities and be employed in sweatshops. The kids who do the embroidery for long hours so that we can wear a fancy top. Cheap embellished anything is a product of someone slaving over it for cents of daily wages…. Its all too sad. If at all i bring this up, i get asked “Aren’t we giving them an opportunity to work?”. “Them”. Its always “Them” vs us. Same rules don’t apply to us, but to them, its okay. I hear complains of how busy we are or how much work we have piled up for the weekend. But for them, its an opportunity. Here are some horror stories :

1. Average monthly wages for a Bangladeshi worker in a garment factory is 43$ in 2013. He gets paid not hourly but per ‘n’ amount of garments completed. Its not uncommon to work overtime without compensation to meet the production goals. 80 hour weeks are not uncommon.

2. No toilets, rats, cockroaches, mediocre lighting conditions, old buildings, sexual harassment, abuse, ….. are a part and parcel of this cycle. This is modern day slavery. When i read about these conditions, i cant help think of the concentration camps i visited in Germany. Ofcourse, i wouldn’t think it’s on the same level, but we are promoting this for cheap and fast fashion.

3. Horrible working conditions exist in garment districts in LA and NYC too. But not on the scale seen in third world countries.

4. Its not restricted to adults. Children are often employed to do the embroidery and attaching sequins/rhinestones/beads. Smaller hands work faster apparently.

5. Spectrum factory collapse incident in Dhaka killed about 64 and injured 72 workers. They had built additional 5 stories over a swamp land to meet the demand. They saw the cracks but couldn’t shut it down for repairs to meet the production demands. When it eventually collapsed, the workers bodies could be found under red Zara pull overs and purple stripe tops.

6. If the average salary of a Bangladeshi garment worker was tripled, it will cost the customer an extra 2.3$. They still don’t do it and we still won’t fight for them.

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The more i read, the angrier i get. Fashion used to inspire me. Now, it just makes me rant and sad. I swore off fast fashion last year after i read: The end of Fast Fashion, Overdressed, Cheap, The lost art of dress and To die for (personal favourite). On the other end, the luxury markets cuts costs and make profits by outsourcing too ( Source: Deluxe ). Clothing, handbags and shoes now get assembled instead of made, in the country of residence of the fashion houses instead of being made there. All so that they can still retain the “Made in Italy/France/..” tag. Reading these books cured my addiction to Zara and high end handbags for good. Its all brainwashing via marketing. The back end process that goes into making these goods is anything but luxury. There are exceptions of course. Its time to bring back the appreciation for slow fashion. To support cottage industries. And companies that embrace sustainable practices to produce their goods. Embrace vintage and secondhand. Ask questions about how things get made. Embrace Made in America. And above all, consume less.

The solution is not straightforward or simple. But it can be only if we consume less. And we have seen this happen before. When the issues of the environment get put out, we tend to throw out the culprits and buy echo-friendly stuff to replace them. My first thoughts were to get rid of the cheap clothes and buy better stuff. Shopping is not a solution for shopping. Its my shopping habits that get me here in the first place.

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List to myself:

1. Do not buy clothes made in sweatshops.

2. Send emails asking about who made my stuff, if i want to purchase something. They need to know that we care. More questions they get, more likely they are to take notice.

3. Don’t buy unless really needed.

4. Blog more about this issue. There are too many fashion bloggers promoting fast fashion and influencing the world. And not nearly enough women talking about these issues.

5. More research.

6. Blog about fashion that has nothing to do with consumption. Talk quality, craftsmanship, make and design. And style over fashion.

Zara is all over the place. Their supply chain is so optimized that they have manufacturers all over the world, but majority of their super on trend items get made in Europe for fast turn over ( < 2 weeks from start to end ).

This is the only way i could curb my consumption. When i have all these filters, there is hardly anything out there for me to shop from. And the good stuff is expensive making me save up and buy when really needed.

Thank you for this post, and for the links to the books you have used for references.
I myself have stopped buying clothes from mass retailers two years ago but I haven’t yet moved to the next level, which is informing myself more and promoting craftmanship and slow fashion (in my case I live in Italy). For now I am just refusing the message that my happiness is linked to purchasing clothes, clothes bearing the blood and tears of so many people. it makes NO SENSE and it makes me so angry!
I would definitely read more on style versus clothes, on the story of fashion, so that my views can be enlarged. I feel this would be a powerful message compared to the average fashion puppet blogs full of affiliate links, that make you feel anything but confident and empowered.
Claire

I was thinking of doing a review with excerpts from each of the books i linked, for those who don’t have the means to buy them or dont have the time to read them. I hope you check back for the passages from the books. It was very eye opening for me and i the more i read, easier it got for me to make better choices.

And there are a few designers who absolutely hate fast fashion. LIke Vivian Westwood who famously went to the press and asked people to stop buying clothes they dont need just before London Fashion week. She talked about the supply chain and environmental stress we are creating. Ofcourse, she was laughed at. And Yohji Yamamoto ( my fav ), who is full of wisdom. And talks about style that has nothing to do with clothes. And abhors fast fashion and fashion while calling himself dress maker. I feel these folks dont get their fair share of recognition for their efforts.

Archana,
I love reading your blog and I will check back for sure. Thank you for your answer and for sharing the voice of your favorite designers, I find it quite reassuring in some way. Like there is hope and that something can be done. I want to join in.
Claire

Beautiful photos- and I loved the opener- what a good point, people who don’t hesitate to drop cash on dining out, concerts, etc. hesitate to pay “too much” for their clothes. All the costs are externalized in other ways. It’s the same with fast / processed food- people pass by healthier options because the costs of creating the fast / processed ones are all subsidized (by the fossil fuel industry, healthcare, and so on) and they get comparatively more for the money or food stamps that they do have. How did the system get screwed up so badly? I used to read about how we got here but it was too depressing…

Ariana, I can relate to your last line. I read a book called “fast food nation” and was depressed for days. Although i think the wheel is turning backwards again when it comes to food. Very very slowly. Fashion, not so much.

I agree with the fact that labor abuse should not be supported. But this is not the case always. The same supply chain and production also feeds thousands of people and helping generate jobs (Maybe not the highly paid ones, but still jobs that pay you for the work you’re doing). What if what they’re getting paid is enough for them to lead a respectable life?
Better than being on the streets for being “unqualified” for the other jobs, no?
Also, your take on it as being a methodology to helping YOU shop less shouldn’t be the main reason for supporting or promoting this cause. Having said that, your post definitely helped me pay more attention to the type of clothes I buy and look into where they are manufactured, coming from and if they are brands involved in labor abuse. Thank you for sharing this. It was a great read!

That is sadly what the companies are doing. Throwing the garment workers in the trash and moving along to more ethical venues. SOLUTION: companies have started to form relationships with their factories and they manage them with the right ethics. Very very very few. I am have been doing research and sending out emails. I have a list of companies for my next post from what I have learnt so far. But trust me on this: any fast fashion company contracts it out with very little importance to ethics and more on if they can get a striped top on shelves in 15 days. Bigger problem is fast fashion. We are trashing the environment and using resources that planet earth can’t sustain. Buying stuff that doesn’t last beyond the year is incredibly taxing and ends up in landfills. A polyester blend ( cheap ) takes 2000 years to decompose and interim releases toxic chemicals into the ground table. India and Bangladesh have practically no regulation against how textile waste is dumped into the water. Our country’s rivers have become sewage. I am fighting fast fashion and this is one small branch of it: labour rights. I challenge you to try finding a company for yourself with great ethics but manufactured in a third world country. My disgust with too much stuff and shopping came after the awareness of all this. I wanted to buy a polka dot silk top last week and asked the company for its supply chain details. The results were so sad that I had to let it go. I have been doing this for a while and there is nothing out there that tempts me. I just can not wear that embroidery if I know that little hands made them. I can’t.

About jobs: it’s just like child labour. Kids need to eat from daily wages vs go to school. One is a “for today” solution. One is a longer term solution. If we all think about and address these issues, one generation who gets thrown out will suffer. But in the long run, we are correcting an evil that capitalism erected. I don’t think there is a simple solution, we are so deep into the rabbit hole right now. But we can think of a systematic long term solution. I am going to relentlessly do my share for this cause.

Everlane and Elieen fisher, put out their ethics about their made in China stuff. My dollar is my vote and I will support them. It’s a direct result of us asking questions and showing our resistance. So it’s upto us to keep the wheel turning. I want long term solutions.

I am glad I helped you think about this issue in some way. Love the discussion.

Coming up: I have termed up with a few other researchers and we are all putting out our research notes on companies that care. Coming up by end of the summer.

P.s: all the research has made me rather strong opinionated. Hope I don’t come off as attacking your views. All this started because I met a practicing Buddhist and he asked me these questions when he saw my closet. Answers I did find have been breaking my heart ever since.

Reading your blog back-to-back and loving it! This you’re saying about research notes on companies that care – have you already posted it or can I nudge you into publishing it even though it’s been a year?

Thank you for all the great content from an inspired reader (another researcher, hah!) in Norway. 🙂

Thank you so much. And for reminding me about this project. I have about 20 emails from brands talking about their supply chain. I will figure out a way to publish these notes. I havent, as of today. But will.